Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
archivescenter@si.edu
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives
Guide to the Grace Murray Hopper Papers
NMAH.AC.0324
Don Darroch
1990
Table of Contents
Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1
Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1
Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 2
Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 2
Biographical / Historical.................................................................................................... 2
Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3
Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 4
Series 1: Technical Documents, 1944 - 1949.......................................................... 4
Series 2: Photographs of MARK II, 1948................................................................. 9
Series 3: Photographs at Harvard, 1944-1945...................................................... 11
Series 4: Reports and Articles, 1946 - 1948.......................................................... 16
Series 5: Eckert-Mauchly Corporation, 1949 - 1965.............................................. 18
Series 6: Compiling Routines, 1952 - 1954........................................................... 24
Series 7: Press Clippings, 1944 - 1953................................................................. 26
Series 8: Periodicals and Brochures, 1950 - 1953................................................ 33
Series 9: Humor File, 1944 - 1953........................................................................ 34
Series 10: Machine Tape, undated........................................................................ 37
Series 11: Audio Visual Materials.......................................................................... 38
Grace Murray Hopper Collection
NMAH.AC.0324
Page 1 of 38
Collection Overview
Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Title:
Grace Murray Hopper Collection
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0324
Date:
1944-1965
Extent:
2.5 cubic feet (7 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Creator:
Hopper, Grace Murray, 1906- (mathematician)
Physical Sciences, Division of (NMAH, Smithsonian Institution).
Language:
English
Collection is in English.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
Grace Murray Hopper donated her materials to the National Museum of American History,
Section of Mathematics in 1967 and 1968. The majority of the collection was donated through
the Museum's Computer Oral History Project in 1972.
Provenance
Transferred from the Division of Physical Sciences to the Archives Center, February 6, 1989.
Related Materials
Materials at the Archives Center
Computer Oral History Collection (AC0196)
This collection contains five oral history interviews with Grace Murray Hopper conducted on:
July 1, 1968; November 1, 1968; January 7, 1969; February 4, 1969; and July 5, 1972.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Don Darroch, 1990.
Preferred Citation
Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American
History
Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
Grace Murray Hopper Collection
NMAH.AC.0324
Page 2 of 38
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees
concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center
cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Biographical / Historical
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University in 1934. She
was an associate professor of mathematics at Vassar College when she joined the Women's Reserve
of the United States Navy, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in 1944 and
was assigned to the computing project at Harvard University. She served under Commander Howard H.
Aiken as a Wave until 1946, and remained at Harvard's Computation Laboratory as a research fellow
until 1949. In that year she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician.
When Eckert-Mauchly became a division of Remington Rand, Hopper remained as senior programmer,
a title she retained until 1959. Subsequently, she served as systems engineer and director of automatic
programming development (1959-1964) and staff scientist in systems programming (1964-1971) for the
UNIVAC division of Sperry Rand Corporation. Hopper retired from UNIVAC in 1972, having returned to
active service in the U.S. Navy from which she eventually retired with the rank of Rear Admiral.
Scope and Contents
The material includes technical notes, operating instructions and descriptions relating to projects which
Hopper participated in at Harvard during and after World War II and later in the private sector. These
projects involved the creation of the Navy's Mark I, II and III "mechanical calculators" (the fore runners
of today's computers) and the UNIVAC and ENIAC civilian models. The photographs document both
equipment and Hopper with her colleagues at work and on social occasions. There are numerous
published articles and memoranda by Hopper and others on various technical aspects of computers.
Clippings of newspaper and magazine articles relating to computers and their development are also
included, as well as periodicals and brochures. A "humor file" contains jokes and anecdotes collected by
Hopper.
Much of the material is annotated by Hopper, primarily through notations on 3 x 5 white slips of paper.
Some of the annotations by Elizabeth Luebbert, who served as a summer research assistant in the
Museum's Computer History Project.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into eleven series.
Series 1: Technical Documents, 1944-1949
Series 2: Photographs of Mark II, 1948
Series 3: Photographs at Harvard, 1944-1945
Series 4: Reports and Articles, 1946-1948